1. Field of the Invention
The invention describes novel aqueous compositions for microbicidal health and beauty care products and the methods for their preparation and use.
2. Description of the Related Art
Health and beauty care products have been an important part of the human civilization from its beginnings. The health and beauty care products include skin, hair, scalp, tooth, mouth, feminine hygiene and other relevant cosmetics as well as xe2x80x9cover the counterxe2x80x9d health care products. One of the imperatives of modern health and beauty care products is to provide antimicrobicidal ingredients along with the other wanted actions, such as improved hydration, moisturizing, antioxidant and anti-itching activities. This is actually very difficult to achieve.
Among the common ingredients of health and beauty care products, alcohols, are the ones most frequently used. Alcohols provide microbicidal action and are a good solvent for most other ingredients. On the other hand, alcohols cause drying and itching of the skin and mucosa. Other commonly used agents result in even stronger, unpleasant side effects. Benzoyl peroxide is, for instance, a common ingredient of acne fighting products. It has an unpleasant smell and taste and also irritates the skin. Moreover, it leaves bleached spots on clothes. Retin A, a recent development in acne and wrinkle fighting, also irritates and overdries the skin. Beta-hydroxy acids have similar side effects.
Inorganic microbicidal agents have also been described and used in beauty care products. Hydrogen peroxide has been the most popular one. Other agents which slowly release nascent oxygen have also been described. (See, for instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,736,582; 5,653,994 or the book xe2x80x9cOxygen Therapies,xe2x80x9d by Ed McCabe; Energy Publications, Morrisville, N.J., (1988).) Yet all such reagents cause skin and mucosa irritation. In most uses, hydrogen peroxide was used with surfactants, oils and other ingredients. This was needed to wet the skin or mucose to a determined level (agents like surfactants are needed to lower the surface tension). (See, for instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,900,721; 3,954,974; 5,773,402). The aforementioned patents and publication are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.
Chlorine based oxidants have also been proposed for microbicidal beauty care products. The evident problems of such products are unpleasant smells, bleaching of clothes and, in many cases, the low chemical stability of the products. Such products also dry and irritate the skin.
Chlorine dioxide solutions have been the most popular ones. See, for instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,737,307; 5,738,840; 4,317,814. The contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.
Mixtures of chlorine based oxidants and oxygen based oxidants were also described. Yet, like other previously mentioned products, such mixtures also dry the skin, have unpleasant odor and bleach clothes. None of the above mentioned products ever achieved a wide popularity among consumers. See, for instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,574,084; or 4,552,679, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by references in their entireties.
Remarkably, our own bodies also use mixed chlorine based-oxygen based systems to kill microbes and save the skin and the rest of the body from microbial infestation. Yet, healthy human individuals do not show permanent symptoms of skin drying or irritation. The chemical compositions used by our body to protect itself do not show such side effects. The enzyme myeloperoxidase produces the mixture of hydrogen peroxide and hypochlorous acid at a pH close to that of the skin (around pH 5). Such mixtures are extremely efficient in killing various microbes. The detailed mechanisms and efficiency of microbicidal action of these mixtures were recently reviewed (J. K. Hurst, xe2x80x9cThe Role of Inorganic Chemistry in Cellular Mechanisms of Host Resistance to Disease,xe2x80x9d in Electron Transfer Reactions, American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C., (1997).) The above mentioned publication is hereby incorporated by reference in its entireties.
The object of the present invention is to provide improved health and beauty care products based on imitating or mimickingxe2x80x94hence the term xe2x80x9cbiomimeticxe2x80x9dxe2x80x94nature""s own ways of yielding microbicidal protection without any significant adverse side effects. Moreover, the object of this invention is to provide improved products which will actually promote hydration of the skin and prevent itching and irritation while giving maximum microbicidal protection. A further object of this invention is to provide water based health and beauty care products with minimum amounts of oils or surfactants, or in the preferred embodiment, without any oil, surfactant or alcohol.
In accomplishing these and other objects of this invention, there are provided methods for producing such water based health and beauty care products. There are also disclosed methods of using the products described in this invention as a mixture with other health and beauty care products such as creams, gels, lotions, powders, tooth and other pastes, suppositories, body and hair shampoos and rinses, oral hygiene rinses and other products which will become apparent to those skilled in the art.
In the first method of producing biomimetic hair, body and skin care products, electrochemistry (especially membrane based electrolysis systems) is used to produce activated water with numerous different chlorine based oxidants at the desired pH. Hydrogen peroxide is then added to that solution and the pH is adjusted to the desired value. Catalytic chlorine filters or air sparging devices can be used to remove excess free chlorine. This removes unpleasant smells and unwanted free chlorine reactions with the skin. The solutions can be sparged with oxygen to yield needed oxygen to the skin.
In the second method of producing the biomimetic hair, body and skin care products, the desired amount of hypochlorous acid/hypochlorite is added to the solution and the pH is adjusted. Ozone can then be introduced to that solution. After the equilibration, hydrogen peroxide can be added, and the pH adjusted to the desired value. Once again, the excess free chlorine can be removed with catalytic chlorine filters and/or air sparging devices.
In yet another aspect of the invention, methods are described to prepare lotions for hair, body and skin care products or hair care products or other beauty and health care products. Such lotions have biomimetically prepared water as the main ingredient.
In yet another aspect of the invention, methods are described to prepare gels for hair, body and skin care products or other beauty and health care products with the minimal or no use of any oil, surfactant and fat.
In yet another aspect of the invention, methods are described to prepare suppositories for the feminine hygiene and yeast infection treatment.
In further aspect of the invention, methods are described to prepare oil and surfactant containing beauty and health care products, such as shampoos, creams or suntanning products, by using biomimetically produced water solutions.
In another aspect of the invention, methods are described to prepare tooth paste or oral rinse hygiene products which are based on biomimetically produced water.
Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims. It should be further understood that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and that, unless otherwise indicated, they are merely intended to conceptually illustrate the structures and procedures described herein.
An object of this invention is to avoid the above mentioned shortcomings of the current hair, body and skin care products. An oil free, water based hair, body and skin care product line with stable, reliable and skin friendly compositions and the methods to prepare them are described. According to the invention, water based mixtures of oxidants with compositions are prepared mimicking those inside the immune system cells of human body. Such compositions are then used to prepare gels, shampoos, creams, rinses, lotions, ointments, pastes, powders or other over the counter beauty and health care products.
The mechanism of action of phagocytic white cells upon encountering bacterium or other pathogens involves a series of biochemical transformations that lead to the isolation and killing of the pathogen. Among those changes, the activation of a respiratory chain, which produces a series of oxygen carrying oxidants such as superoxide ions, hydrogen peroxide, hydroxyl radicals, singlet oxygen and chlorine oxygen compounds such as hypochlorite, plays a major role. (J. K. Hurst, xe2x80x9cThe Role of Inorganic Chemistry in Cellular Mechanisms of Host Resistance to Disease,xe2x80x9d in Electron Transfer Reactions, American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C., (1997)). The above mentioned publication is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. It was subsequently found that reactive nitrogen compounds such as nitric oxide and peroxynitrite also play a role in the host defense mechanism. The main component of this defense mechanism is hypochlorite ion ClOxe2x88x92. Other oxidant such as peroxide, stabilize and enhance the reactivity of hypochlorite. The reactions between hypochlorite ions and hydrogen peroxide also produce high energy hydroxyl radicals and singlet oxygen. (L. P. Candeias et al., FEBS Letters, Vol. 333, pp. 151-153 (1993); A. U. Khan and M. Kasha, Proc. Natl. Acd. Sci. USA, Vol. 91, pp. 12362-12364 (1994).) The contents of these publications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties. Such phagocytic cells defend human skin from the ever-present pathogens. Yet healthy human individuals do not feel discomfort, skin dryness or itching. Through the years of evolution, an microbicidal system which is not irritating to the host developed. Such mixtures are also a very efficient microbicidal agent, which surpasses pure hypochlorite by almost a factor of one hundred. (Wilk, L. J. et al., The Science of the Total Environment, Vol. 63, pp. 191-197 (1987).) This publication is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Methods of Preparation of Biomimetic Water Solutions
The term xe2x80x9cbiomimetic water solutionxe2x80x9d means the product naturally produced by human body or by either of the processes described as following.
The human bodies use electrochemistry and catalytic processes to produce such compositions. Similar approaches are used in this invention.
In the first method of producing biomimetic beauty and health care products, electrochemistry (especially membrane based electrolysis systems) is used to produce activated water with numerous different chlorine based oxidants at the desired pH. Hydrogen peroxide is then added to that solution and the pH is adjusted to the desired value. Catalytic chlorine filters or air sparging devices can be used to remove excess free chlorine. This removes unpleasant smells and unwanted free chlorine reactions with the skin. The solutions can be sparged with oxygen to yield needed oxygen to the skin.
Electrochemical devices needed to produce activated water with a mixture of chlorine based oxidants are, for instance, described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,833,831; 5,674,537; 5,788,820, or in Y. Shiramizu et al., J. Electrochem. Soc., Vol. 143, pp. 1632-1635 (1996); which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties. Such devices can operate batch or continuous. Water to be electrolyzed should be purified, as by deionization, reverse osmosis or distillation, as any ions which are free radical scavengers such as carbonates can interfere with the electrolysis process. To increase the conductivity of purified water, sodium chloride or potassium chloride may be added. The concentrations of added chlorides can vary between 10 mg/l and 10 g/l. In batch devices, the cathode and anode areas are then filled with the same amount of chloride solution and the equipment is closed. The electrolysis is then started and can last for between 10 seconds and 30 minutes. The water from the anode compartment of such devices is then collected and used for further treatment. The pH of such water can vary between 0.8 and 6. The redox potential of such water can vary between 1300 mV and 650 mV. If long term stability is needed, the best results are achieved with the water with pH around 5.5 and redox potential around 750 mV. Such water is stable for more than one year. Alternatively, sodium or potassium chloride solutions can be connected to the flow-through device. Such devices perform the electrolysis instantaneously. Once again, water from the anode compartment is collected. Such water also shows the best results when used around pH 5.5 and redox potential of 750 mV. For the best results, the equipment manufacturer""s instructions should be followed.
Various amounts of hydrogen peroxide is then added to such activated or electrolyzed water collected from the anode compartment. A concentration between 10 mg/l and 100 mg/l can be used without interfering with the stability of the solution. Upon the addition of hydrogen peroxide, the pH should be adjusted to about 5.5. The activity of such water towards various microorganisms with standard techniques known to those skilled in the art should be tested as a major quality control procedure.
The next step in the production of biomimetic water is removal of excess free chlorine from the water. This can be achieved by air sparging with any of the available commercial devices which are well known to those skilled in the art and are, by way of examples, described in xe2x80x9cWater Quality and Treatment; A Handbook of Community Water Suppliesxe2x80x9d, (F. W. Pontius editor; McGrawHill, New York, N.Y. (1990).) This book is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. The residual free chlorine can then be removed with catalytic chlorine filters as is well known. The details of such filtration are also described in the above mentioned Pontius book. The water is then ready for the preparation of skin, beauty and health care products. Numerous variations of this process such as, for example, different pH values of the final water solutions, different peroxo agents or other methods of free chlorine removal would be obvious to the skilled in the art and are, therefore, encompassed by this patent.
In the second method of producing the biomimetic hair, body and skin, beauty and health care products, the desired amount of hypochlorous acid/hypochlorite is added to the solution and the pH is adjusted in any well known manner. Ozone can then be introduced to that solution. After equilibration, hydrogen peroxide can be added, and the pH adjusted to a desired value. Once again, the excess free chlorine can be removed with the catalytic chlorine filters and/or air sparging devices. Reaction of ozone and hypochlorite will yield similar products as the electrolysis of sodium chloride.
The advantage of the second method of preparation of biomimetic water solutions is that all water can be used, unlike the electrolysis based process which is bound to lose the half of the water electrolyzed in the cathode area. In the second method, one also needs purified water (e.g. water that is deionized, reverse osmosis purified or distilled). Sodium hypochlorite is then added at concentrations between 1 mg/l and 1000 mg/l to the purified water. The water pH is then adjusted with HCl to around 5. After 15 minutes of stirring and equilibration, ozone is then introduced to such solution with vigorous stirring. Ozone can be produced by any of the commercial devices such as, for example, is described in the aforementioned book, the contents of which have already been incorporated by reference in their entirety. The concentrations of ozone used are to be between 0.1 mg/l and 3 mg/l. Higher amounts of ozone will produce unstable solutions. After 30 minutes of stirring, the pH is then adjusted to about 5.5 with the addition of such pH adjusters as HCl or NaOH and the solution is ready for further processing, which is identical to that of the first method. The addition of hydrogen peroxide to final concentrations between 1 and 100 mg/l is followed by air sparging to remove free chlorine and filtration with the catalytic chlorine filters. Such water solution is then ready for the preparation of the beauty and health care products. Water prepared with either method 1 or 2 will be termed xe2x80x9cbiomimetic water solutionsxe2x80x9d in the remaining part of the text of this patent. Numerous modifications of this process (other values of pH, ionic strength, type of peroxo agent used etc.) are obvious to the person skilled in the art.